An Import Diary

This will be an account of the travels of Robin (Steelriver Could It Be Magic), as he comes to the United States from the Netherlands.  Robin is 3 years old on May 5, 2003.  We hope you enjoy it!

April 14, 2003 - Robin arrives in Atlanta, GA via Delta airlines, accompanied by Chris and Kellie Kanipe.  The day is sunny and warm, and Robin is standing on the sidewalk, wagging his tail and meeting Americans who want to pet him.

When he arrives at our house, he is friendly and happy and he has to relieve himself rather urgently!!  We spend some time playing with the new puppies that also traveled across the ocean, and go inside the house at about dark.

Robin sees our cats and runs up and tries to take a nip!  Uh-oh, our cats don't know about dogs that nip!!  We put the cats into another room and let Robin relax.  He rushes up several times to watch the television intently, then naps for a little while.

He also climbs onto Andrea's lap to give her a thorough licking and generally makes himself at home.

It is soon bedtime, and we decide to have Robin sleep in his crate, so the cats can roam safely.  Poor Robin!  He cries a little bit, but finally falls asleep.

April 15, 2003 - It is Tuesday, and Robin awakes ready to get on with his day.  First, some television.  He loves to watch television!!!  Then it is breakfast time.  Robin tried hard to convince us that he is fed every hour, but we know that he eats 2 meals a day.

After he finishes his food, Robin will spend some time outdoors.         When    he goes out, he sees our cat Pearl out on the deck.  He stares at her like she is on television!  But finally he licks her head, and is very sweet with her.  This meeting with Pearl is the start of his friendship with our cats.

Later in the day, Robin goes out to retrieve bumpers.  He is crazy for it, and is also very well-behaved about returning each bumper to hand.  He is such a gentleman, and it is obvious that he has been well trained already.

 April 16, 2003 - Wednesday is the day that Robin will go to the pond and we will see if he can swim!  He jumps up into the truck as if he has been doing it his whole life.  Once at the pond, he hesitates for just a moment, then he races in and swims for his bumper!  He gets several more retrieves before he gets back into the truck and heads back for some rest and his eagerly awaited supper!

April 17, 2003 - Today we will see what Robin thinks of real birds!  We have ducks and also pigeons for training today.  When Robin sees his duck, he sniffs it thoroughly, then retrieves it without another thought.  His mouth is soft - very good as the duck is alive!  Now that we know that Robin will swim, and will retrieve birds, his training can begin.  We will wait for a few more days before this starts, so that he is totally comfortable in his new surroundings.  It is exciting to see this dog with so much potential.

Entries were also sent today for Robin's first US dog shows.  The American show system is very different from the FCI system, but Robin doesn't know that.  He has been rated "excellent" in European shows, and we are hopeful that the American judges will also see his quality.  His first weekend of shows will be May 3 & 4th, right here in Athens, then he will go the FCRSA national specialty (May 15), where he will be seen by most of the breeders in the United States.

April 23, 2003 - Robin has just discovered cows!!!  Our property borders a large cattle farm, and occasionally the beasts graze right outside our front fence.  Imagine Robin's surprise to step into "his" front yard and see several huge black animals so close by!  He rushed to the fence, barking ferociously.  This frightened the cows, and emboldened Robin, so now he rushes to the fence whenever he goes out, in hopes of chasing the cows away.

April 26, 2003 - Today Robin's friend Kellie Kanipe came for a visit.  Kellie will be Robin's handler at the dog shows.  We are gearing up for the national specialty, and we have many dogs to prepare by grooming and training.  Kellie helped groom Robin, as well as several others of our young dogs who are going to the big show.  Robin and Kellie also practiced their show training...always fun for Robin, as he gets a lot of tasty treats!!

May 2, 2003 - Robin is being groomed for the shows.  In the Netherlands, dogs aren't necessarily bathed before showing, so bathing Robin was an adventure!  He kept wagging his shampoo-soaked tail!!  After his bath, he was left to dry naturally, and finishing touches will be put on in the morning before the show.

May 3, 2003 - We arrive at the show and Robin is EXCITED.  It is clear he loves the dog show.  The ring is outdoors, and it is cloudy and a bit overcast, although it is fairly warm (70's).  We wait beside the ring for our turn (we are showing 4 dogs today....2 dogs and 2 bitches).  Robin is entered in Open dog.  He goes into the ring with Kellie and shows very well, wagging his tail furiously the whole time.  He places 2nd behind a nice dog.

May 4, 2003 - Kellie can't make the show today, so Kass will show Robin.  We make our way to the ring, and enter the ring when our turn comes.  Robin again shows beautifully, and we are proud that he has adjusted so easily to the American style of showing (we "stack" the dogs here for examination by the judge - that simply means that the dog's feet are placed before the judge comes to the dog, and the dog should stand relatively still while the judge goes over him).  When not being examined, Robin baits nicely at the end of the lead, ears and tail up, presenting a beautiful picture.  Robin places third today, which is disappointing to us.  Later the judge says she thought he was too big, and couldn't put him up for that reason.  We are still pleased that he did so well at showing.  Many American judges will not realize his great type, so he is not going to win every time out.  Hopefully he will educate some of the judges!!

May 8, 2003 - We leave early tomorrow morning to drive to Pennsylvania for our national specialty.  We are traveling with 13 dogs in total, and we will deliver 7 of those to their owners after the hunting tests.  The remainder will stay with us all week, and we will show on Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Saturday!  The sweepstakes classes will be on Wednesday, so Robin will just relax that day.  His time in the ring will be on Thursday.  Friday is for the bitches, then Best of Breed will be judged on Saturday.  Click here to follow the results.  We will return to Georgia on May 19th, and can update Robin's journey then.

May 19, 2003 - Andrea, Kass and dogs all arrived back in Georgia safely at about 1 a.m. on May 18th.  It was a long drive (about 11 hours) in time, but a short drive in memories.....Robin did much better than we had ever hoped and became only the second dog bred outside North America to win Best of Breed at a national specialty.  This is an impressive accomplishment, as many imports have competed at the specialty over the last 25 years.

Robin gathered a lot of attention from American breeders, and made so many new friends.  After Robin was placed as Winners Dog, we called Richard and Wilma and convinced them to drop everything and fly to the US in time to see the Best of Breed judging.  How exciting to be in the ring when Robin earned his BOB, and it was even more fun for us that Richard and Wilma could be standing ringside!!  After a whirlwind 48 hours in America, the van der Horst's took the long flight home to the Netherlands, with all of their ribbons and most of their trophies!  We are happy to be traveling back to Europe in just a few days for the World Show and also the Dutch clubshow, so we can see our friends again, and continue to celebrate this exciting win!

Reserve Winners Dog and Best of Opposite Sex in Puppy Sweepstakes at this show was our puppy (bred by Richard and Wilma), Cloud Dancer's Jet To Bertschire, "Jet".  The Dutch boys sure had a great specialty!!  Robin and Jet are pictured here with their ribbons.  Kellie is on the right with Robin, and Stacy Coleman kindly showed Jet to RWD when Kellie was in the ring with Robin!

June 4, 2003 - We have just returned from a visit overseas visiting Richard and Wilma and spending time at both the World Dog Show in Dortmund, Germany and the Dutch clubshow (national specialty) in Almere, Holland.  We were able to see many, many different flat coats.  The showing and judging style is so different, and yet the same.  Richard's homebred male, Max was the winner of an excellent breeder's class.  Max will be coming to the US next year....he is also a lovely dog, of a slightly different type than Robin, but also very useful in his own way.

June 9, 2003 - Robin officially begins his field work today.  He will now go out every weekday and receive training for marks - birds that are thrown at various distances and through different kinds of cover for him to watch fall, and to hunt for and retrieve to hand.  Robin is very eager to do this kind of work, and his excitement is high.  When he is not actually working on land or water marks, his training will concentrate on obedience commands; learning to heel quietly and to fetch to hand without dropping the bird along the way. 

July 9, 2003 - Entries were sent today to enter Robin in the Greenville, South Carolina shows, to be held July 26 & 27.  These shows usually draw a "major" entry (enough Flat Coats entered to make the points worth 3, 4 or 5 points.  All American champions must win a total of 15 points, and at least 6 of those points must be made up of majors, and at least 2 different judges must award the major points.  Robin won his first major by winning Winners Dog at the national specialty.  That win gave him 5 points.), so we will hope to win at least one of the days. 

July 19, 2003 - Robin has been training now for several weeks.  His progress has been excellent.  When Robin began training, he did not understand that the birds could fall farther than you could throw a dummy by hand, so he tended to hunt short.  He has been learning to drive deeper and deeper, and can now mark birds at 50 - 100 yards with little trouble.  His biggest problem in training has been to learn to be steady as the birds fall - he is so eager to retrieve that he wants to "break" (to go for the bird before being sent).  This causes him to lose eye contact with the mark, and that then creates a problem in finding the bird, so learning to be steady is crucial.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              Robin playing with 5 month old "Dutch"

July 26, 2003 - This is the start of a busy week for Robin.  He traveled to Greenville, South Carolina today to compete for his second major.  This show is 2 hours from our home.  Robin has blown his coat recently, but he has so much hair, that he still looks great!  He competed in a class of 3 Open dogs.  He won first place there, then had to compete against 2 other male class winners for Winners Dog...which he won, for his second major and giving him a total of 8 points now!!  He was also awarded Best of Winners, over the Winners Bitch.  Tomorrow he competes again in Greenville, then he heads to Salem, Virginia on Wednesday to show to the judge who will be judging at the Westminster Kennel Club show in New York City in February.  He'll be back in Georgia on Friday afternoon.

July 27, 2003 - Robin is not as successful at today's dog show!  He places 2nd in his class and is awarded Reserve Winners Dog.  There are no points for this win, but it shows that the judge thinks he was the second best male.  Robin will now rest on Monday, and travel to Virginia on Tuesday and show on Wednesday and Thursday.  Meanwhile, we heard the wonderful news from Richard that he showed his homebred male, Max (Cloud Dancer's Endless Gossip) to his Luxemburg championship today!!  It is Richard's first homebred champion, and we are delighted and proud to hear this news! 

July 31, 2003 - Robin is the only "class dog" entered.  This means that there are no points available unless he wins Best of Breed over the champion dogs that we call "specials".  He will show today anyway, because we want this judge to see him.  He does not win Best of Breed, so no points for him today.

August 1, 2003 - Kass and Andrea drive to Kellie's house in Flat Rock, North Carolina today to pick up Robin.  The first two bitches that he will be bred to have come in season, so he will come back with us to begin breeding.

August 9, 2003 - Today we drive to Greensboro, North Carolina (about 5 hours away) to show Robin to Dr Sturz, the judge who awarded him BOB at the specialty.  There is one point available in the classes, and 2 points can be earned by defeating the specials.  We get up early to drive for our 1 pm ring time.  As we travel, our car begins to overheat slightly!  When we get to the show site, we find a garage to fix the car, and then get back to the show in time to see Robin go in the ring.  Dr Sturz again awards Robin BOB, giving him 2 more points toward his championship.  Robins shows in the Sporting Group later that afternoon, but does not win anything more.

August 10, 2003 - Our car was fixed on Saturday, so we spend the night in a motel and prepare Robin to show again.  The entry is the same as Saturday's, so the same points are available.  Robin is awarded Winner's Dog for 1 more point (total 11 now!).  His next shows will be August 22, 23 and 24.     

August 15, 2003 - The 2 bitches bred to Robin are out of season now, and if they are pregnant, we'll expect puppies in early October.  Today we learned that there are plenty of points available at the next shows that Robin could possibly finish his championship there.  He will need to win any 2 of the 3 days to do this.

August 24, 2003 - We are very disappointed by the results of this weekend.  Robin was not placed higher than 2nd in his class on any day!  He showed very well, and we could not have asked him to do any better.                                                                                                                      Robin enjoying a toy in our kitchen.

August 28, 2003 - Today Robin had a great training day in the field.  For the first time, he was able to swim over 100 yards and find and retrieve his bird from the water!! He has been building up to this distance for a while now, and it was exciting to see him truly understand one of our basic concepts....always swim to the far side of the pond to find the bird.  If the bird should fall into the water, the dog will find it along the way.  But if the dog simply swims out into the center of the pond, he will miss those birds that fall further away.

Sept 5, 2003 - It is official!  Both bitches bred to Robin are confirmed pregnant on ultrasound!  Venus showed 11 babies, and Serena showed 8!  This means there are at least that many pups, and possibly more (last year, Serena showed 7 on ultrasound, and whelped 10).  We will now plan to have 2 large litters....how crazy is that???

Oct 5, 2003 - This is Robin's first weekend of hunt tests.  He has qualified today for his first Junior hunter "leg" (what we call a qualifying score...each dog needs to earn 4 "legs" or ribbons to earn a title)!  On Saturday, he retrieved the 2 ducks thrown for him on land, but his hunts were long and not as efficient as the judges wanted to see, so he failed the test.  His work on Sunday was much better, and he easily marked and retrieved the 2 land marks and 2 water marks required to qualify.  He will try again next weekend, in Tennessee.

Oct 6, 2003 - Robin's first puppies have been born!  Serena began whelping just after midnight on Sunday night/Monday morning.  Her whelping was easy, and she had an all black litter of 7.  Less than 24 hours later, her sister Venus began whelping, and produced an all black litter of 6!        

Oct 11, 2003 - Robin is trying for more JH ribbons this weekend.  He has an excellent test on Saturday, marking all 4 birds quite well, and easily earns his second Junior leg!  Sunday's test proves to be more than he can handle, as he is unable to resist the heavy bird scent left by a crate of live birds, that he must pass on the way to one of the marks.  When he smells the birds, he pulls up short and hunts around them, but it is in the wrong place.  His next test will come up in early November.

Oct 18, 2003 - Kellie and Robin have traveled to New Jersey (about 13 hours away), looking for his final 3 points.  He will have to win Best of Breed to get enough points.  Kellie calls with the report that he did win Best of Breed and has finished his championship!  His official name in the United States is now CH Steelriver Could It Be Magic.  It's great news.  He has a few more shows for this year, where he will be shown as a "special" (a dog that has earned a championship and is now entered to win Best of Breed), then we will decide whether we will show him any more.

Nov 9, 2003 - Robin has just finished his Junior Hunter!  He needed to qualify both days this weekend to earn the title, and he had beautiful work and many compliments from the judges and gallery.  Robin will now be known as CH Steelriver Could It Be Magic JH.

Nov 10, 2003 - Today we went to Atlanta to meet the plane from Amsterdam that brought Richard and Wilma to the USA to visit with us and also to see Robin and the puppies!  They will be able to spend 5 days in America before returning to Holland.      

Nov 13, 2003 - The weather has changed, and today it is very windy, and much cooler  than when Richard and Wilma came to Georgia.  We will be hunting for pheasants, a first for Robin, and also for Richard and Wilma!  After working some of our older dogs, we took Robin out for his first experience with quartering and flushing birds.  He began slowly, not quite understanding what we wanted for him....after all, there were no gunners in the field ready to throw birds for him!

Richard handled Robin for this, using Dutch commands to encourage Robin to hunt.  Kass walked on the other side, and encouraged Robin to come to her area, so that he would work between them.  After 10 minutes of  hunting, Robin found a bird!  It was a hen pheasant (legal when hunting on a game farm), and it did not want to fly!   After being nudged out of it's cover, Robin pounced on the bird and caught it without it getting a chance to fly.  That's OK, as he now would know we were looking for birds in the grass.

Robin began to hunt again, and this time he knew exactly what to do and worked with his nose down, searching for bird scent.  Soon, he flushed a rooster pheasant, but this bird flew too close to Wilma and it was not a safe shot, so the bird flew to the woods.  That was the last bird we had put out for Robin, so he went back to the truck for some water and a rest. 

Nov 15, 2003 -     We are notified today that  Willow (CH Wingmaster's Free Will UD SH) has come in season.  Willow will be bred to Robin, so there should be January puppies!  Willow is a beautiful bitch, with excellent type and movement and wonderful working ability.  It should be an excellent match.

Dec 13, 2003 - Another bitch has arrived here for breeding to Robin.  She isn't in season yet (she has traveled from New York, and her owner, Jennifer Andrews, wanted to be sure that we had her in plenty of time to let her settle in from her trip before she came in season).  Scoter is a beautiful young bitch from the Huntlane kennel, with excellent working ability.  Her father's pedigree has some English dogs close up.

Dec 17, 2003 - Scoter has come in season today!  Her breedings will probably take place in late December, so we hope Jennifer will be whelping February puppies!

Dec 19, 2003 - Today one of our Dutch friends is visiting.  Leonie Galdermans, of Swallowsflight Kennel fame, is in America, staying with Kellie Kanipe in North Carolina.  They drove down for the day and we took several young dogs out to train, and also Robin came along.  He did an excellent job on his first mark, then hunted for his second mark.  We repeated the second mark for training purposes, and he did an outstanding job on his second try.  Robin definitely recognized Leonie!  He ran to her and wagged and wiggled furiously.  It was too cold today to do any water work (low 40's with a 20-30 mph wind blowing!), so unfortunately Leonie did not get to see the dogs work in the water.

Dec 31, 2003 - Scoter has accepted Robin for their first breeding this afternoon.  It is still early in her season, so we will continue to breed them until Scoter refuses.

Jan 1, 2004 - 2004 begins warm and sunny in Georgia!  It is almost 70` F.  Nothing new in Robin's world, but we do want to wish all of our friends, old and new, a happy and successful New Year!

Jan 23, 2004 - This afternoon, Robin is in for a surprise.  Wilma will be arriving in Atlanta, bringing the 2 new puppies we have imported.  It will be a quick trip for Wilma, just for the weekend. 

Jan 24, 2004 - We are going pheasant hunting today.  The weather is excellent - about 60 F. with some wind.  We take several clients on this trip, and Robin gets to come along too.  He is the last to work, and immediately he finds and retrieves a cripple.  After hunting for about 30 minutes, he finds another bird, that he catches before it can fly!  Robin has now been pheasant hunting twice, and of the 4 birds he has retrieved, none have been shot for him!  He is very quick at catching them.

Robin working in front of the guns

Jan 26, 2004 - This evening, Wilma will fly back to Holland after her short visit.  But it is now just a few weeks before we travel to England for Crufts, and we will see our friends again!

Jan. 28, 2004 - We were informed today that Willow had 3 puppies last night (1 girl, 2 boys).  We are disappointed by her small litter, but we are happy that she had puppies!

Feb 4, 2004 - More disappointing news from Jennifer Andrews - Scoter was ultrasounded today, and is not pregnant.  Unfortunately, Robin will be out of the country when Scoter comes in season again.

Mar 2, 2004 - We are leaving today to bring Robin to the Crufts show in Birmingham, England.  It will be a very long trip, but we will see our Dutch fiends and hopefully meet some new friends in the UK.

Mar 3, 2004 - We all land at London's Gatwick airport, and after collecting Robin, we head north toward Birmingham.  Driving in England is harrowing, but we do safely arrive at our hotel and meet up with our large American group and Richard and Wilma.  Robin is pretty happy to see his family!

Mar 4, 2004 - As we are all getting ready for dinner, Kellie discovers that Robin is lame, very lame in his right front leg.  Andrea takes a close look at him and discovers a small abscess between his toes on his right front foot.   Richard, Andrea and Kellie rush off to a 24 hour emergency vet to have him looked at - we're just 12 hours from show time!

Mar 5 2004 - It's Gundog day at Crufts and we are all up early to get to the show on time.  Robin is sound on his foot, as the antibiotics he was prescribed have made his foot comfortable.  The show is so large, that only the Gundog Group is being judged today.  There are 169 dogs entered and 223 bitches!  Robin will show in the Open class, against many other champions.  There are 23 entries in his class.  The British system is such that only one winner from every class will compete for Best of Breed.  We don't expect to win the class, but we do hope to make the "shortlist" (the dogs that the judge pulls out for consideration for placements).  After examining all of the dogs very thoroughly and efficiently, judge Bob Allen makes his "cut", dismissing all but 9 of the entries.  Robin is in the cut!!!  This is most exciting, as the dogs remaining are very excellent flatcoats, and Robin is in wonderful company.  The winner of this class, SU CH NUCH Almanza Far & Flyg, well-deserved this win and went on to win the Reserve CC.

Mar 6, 2004 - Today is a travel day for all of us.  Richard, Wilma and Kellie went back to Holland last night on the ferry, and the rest of our group is flying from London to Groningen, The Netherlands.  A wrong turn in Birmingham loses 2 hours of time for us, and then it's a mad rush to London to catch our plane! We are in 2 different cars (our group now numbers 6 - Andrea, Kass, Nancy, Terri, Chris and Nikki) and we are sure to get many speeding tickets from Britain's camera speed control system.  With only minutes to spare, Chris and Nikki miss the exit to Stansed!!!  We manage to get off  and return our rental car in record time.  A rush in to check in for our flight, and the desk clerk tells us that our friends are too late....they don't have enough time to catch the plane! We arrive at our gate as the plane is boarding, and we hope our friends can find a way over to Holland before tomorrow.  Our flight is less than one hour long, and we land in Groningen, meet up with Richard and  head to our hotel for dinner and a night's sleep.  Tomorrow we are going to the international all-breed show in Zuidlaren!  Before going to bed, we let the front desk know our friends could arrive in the night, but we haven't heard anything from them yet.

Mar 7, 2004 - Nikki and Chris join us for breakfast and recount their trip from London.  It took them 10 minutes to turn back after missing the exit, so they parked their rental car and found a one-way flight to Amsterdam.  After landing at Schiphol, they rented another car there and drove to the hotel in Spier, arriving about midnight.  The dog show is in Zuidlaren, only about 30 minutes from Richard's home.  Our caravan heads out about 7:30 am and we all go inside and settle into the benching area.  Richard has also entered his lovely dog, Max (Lux CH Cloud Dancer's Endless Gossip) in the champions class, and Kellie will show him as well as Robin.  As the judging time approaches, Robin begins to go lame again!  His foot is sore and there is not enough time to help it feel better.  It is decided to take him into the ring, on the hope that he will not be too lame, but he is lame and he is excused from judging.  We are disappointed, of course, but Max goes on to win the dog CC and then is awarded Best of Breed!  This is a nice win over an entry of 59 flatcoats.  We stay for the group judging, which is very different from groups in the USA.  First, there are 10 groups (7 in the US), including a group just for dachshunds, and one just for poodles!!  The retriever and water dog group includes not just our more familiar goldens, labradors and curlies, but Portuguese water dogs and quite a few FCI breeds that are not recognized in the USA.

The groups are all brought into a pre-judging ring, where the group judge examines each dog, and moves any that catch his or her eye.  Then the group is brought into the huge group ring and moved around the perimeter.  The judge quickly moved down the ring, asking the steward to pull out her "shortlist", about 10 dogs.  Max was one of them!  Each of those dogs is moved as the rest of the group is excused.  The process is quite quick, and Max ended up as Best in Group (BIG), an honor rarely awarded to flatcoats in Europe!!!  In this group, there were 8 placements (placements were awarded based on the number of breeds in that group....the 9 member dachshund group only awarded 2 placements) given out.

Max's group was 8th to be judged, so there were 2 more groups to go to Best in Show.  All 10 of the group winners came back into the ring for Best in Show judging.  The judge moved each dog down and back, then began sorting them out, placing them from 10th through first.  Max ended up being awarded 5th!  What excitement for us all!!

Mar 9, 2004 - We all head back to America today, on almost all different flights.  Kellie is flying Delta, with Robin and Max.  While we were away, we learned that another bitch has come in season for Robin, so he will be mating with CH Huntlane's Hakuna Matata SH shortly after we return from abroad. 

Mar 14, 2004 - Today Robin had his first breeding with Kuna.  We expect late May puppies from this litter!

April 4, 2004 - It is now less than a month until our National Specialty show to be held in California this year.  Kellie wants to spend some time working with Robin, so he goes to North Carolina until we get closer to our departure.  The National will be held starting with Sweepstakes classes May 3 through Best of Breed judging May 6.  Because Robin is a champion in the USA, he will be entered in the Best of Breed class, but several of his puppies from Venus and Serena will be old enough to be shown.  They will be entered in both the Sweepstakes and the regular puppy classes, most of them showing for the first time!  Richard and Wilma will be arriving April 27, then we will fly to California for the specialty.  Robin will be returning to the Netherlands with them on May 9.

April 15, 2004 - We were notified today that another bitch has come in season to be bred to Robin.  Callie is from the Grousemoor kennel in Michigan, and she will be arriving next week.

April 21, 2004 - Jennifer Andrews called today with excellent and exciting news!  Kuna is pregnant, so we are looking forward to a visit to upper New York sometime in July to see her litter.

April 20, 2004 - Callie has arrived for her mating to Robin.  She is a cute bitch, very sweet, and an excellent mover.  If she becomes pregnant, she will be be due in late June for her litter.  We'll all be hoping she gets pregnant!

April 27, 2004 - Richard and Wilma arrive today from Holland.  They will be traveling to the California specialty with us, so it will be a busy time for us all!  I think Robin will be very happy to see them.

April 28, 2004 - Today we are taking all of our dogs that are entered in the specialty (except Robin) to Kellie's.  Kellie and Nikki Runyan and Nancy Cavallo have generously agreed to drive a total of 12 dogs to California!  We have decided to fly Robin with us, as he does not like riding in a crate, so it will be much easier on him to travel with us in the air.  They will spend 4 days driving to get there, and 4 days driving to get back.  The distance each way is 2626 miles! 

May 1, 2004 - We are flying this evening to Oakland, CA.  The specialty show will be held in Vallejo, about 30 miles from Oakland/San Francisco.  Robin travels well, and we all arrive safely and head to the hotel, where all of the American Flatcoat lovers are meeting for the big show!

May 3, 2004 - Today is the sweepstakes judging.  These classes are open only to puppies aged 6 months to 18 months (separated by age group: 6 - 9 months, 9 - 12 months, 12 - 15 months and 15 - 18 months old).  We are showing 2 of Robin's puppies from Venus in these classes (6- 9 months), and there are 3 others of his puppies also entered.  Our male puppy, Colby, places 3rd in his sweeps class and we are very happy with that result!

May 4, 2004 - The judging of all dog classes (except Best of Breed) will be judged today.  There are 3 male Robin puppies entered, all in the same class (6 - 9 months).  Colby is chosen as the winner of this class, so we are all pleased with that!

May 5, 2004 - Today is the judging of bitches.  Two of Robin's girl pups are entered in 6 - 9 months.  Barrett makes the cut for this large class, but does not get a placement.  It is disappointing, but she showed very well and everybody got to see her.  Today is also Robin's 4th birthday!!

May 6, 2004 - Finally, the big day is here.  Best of Breed.  We are hoping to receive a Judge's Award of Merit with Robin.  We don't think the judge will pick him for Best of Breed, but a JAM would be wonderful.  The judging goes quickly, with breeder/judge Brenda Phillips of England swiftly making her choices for the cuts.  Robins survives each cut, so we begin to hope that he will indeed get a JAM.  Brenda spends a while deciding on her final choice, CH Shannara's Chamber of Secrets JH, a lovely dog from the midwest.  Robin does get a JAM, so we are thrilled!  Congratulations to Wayne Heikes and Zach for BOB.....we know just how exciting that is!

 We are not leaving California until Saturday, May 8, but we have heard that the weather in Atlanta is very, very hot (88 F, 31 C), and we are worried that the airline will not accept a dog for transit.  Kellie's husband, Chris, kindly offers to take Robin with him on the "redeye", an overnight flight that will avoid the hot temperatures.  We take Chris and Robin to the San Francisco airport late Friday evening, and make plans to meet Chris early Sunday morning to pick up Robin.

May 8, 2004 - We head back to Atlanta around noon, Pacific time, and arrive in Atlanta about 8 pm local time.  It is still hot and humid, even though it is well into the evening.  We are worried that the airline will not accept Robin for the flight to Amsterdam tomorrow.

May 9, 2004 - Today is our last day with Robin in the USA.  We are anxious because of the weather, but thankfully, there is some rain, so it stays cooler than expected.  Andrea drives to meet Chris and pick up Robin.  We need to leave the house by about 1:30 pm to make the plane to Holland.  Richard spends most of the morning watching the Weather Channel.

We all head for the airport on schedule, and once we arrive, there is no problem with getting Robin accepted!  It is a big relief to us all!  We had packed ice to put in his water bucket, and had put a small battery-operated fan on the front of the crate, so he had some air moving.  We are sad to see Robin go....it has been an extraordinary year for us all.  Richard and Wilma's enormous generosity will always be remembered, and the proof of it will be in the United States in his children and grandchildren for years to come.  When it is time to say good-bye, we all cry a little bit, but Robin is soon to be home, and we are sure he will become a Dutch champion and sire some beautiful puppies there.  We also think that Robin will visit the USA for specialties from time to time, and we will visit the Netherlands, so we will be seeing him pretty regularly.  The gift we have been given has cemented our friendship with Richard and Wilma, and we hope to be able to repay them someday.

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May 15, 2004 - Richard called with some exciting news!  Robin has been to a show in the Netherlands, and was 1st in his class with an "excellent" rating, then went on to become Best Dog and Best of Breed!!  This is his first CC in Holland, so he is on his way to his Dutch championship.  We are thrilled to hear this, of course, and have high hopes for his show career in Europe.

November 13, 2004 - Richard has called to tell us that Robin has won another CC- Best Dog, Best of Breed and on to 3rd in Group!  This is Robin's second group placement in Europe (it is an unusual thing for Flat Coats to place in the group in European shows), and he now only needs one CC or Reserve CC to finish his Dutch championship!  We are traveling on November 24 to Amsterdam to see our friends and to see the Amsterdam winner show, where Robin is entered.  We are hoping he will do well and we can't wait to visit our friends!!